The Good Dinosaur

I felt compelled to write a review, primarily because there are so many "1 star" reviews taking up residence on this site. Let's be frank, folks. If it wasn't Pixar, you wouldn't be whining about how "awful" it was.

Here's the truth for those who are actually interested in seeing it: it's a pretty great flick.

I would love to hop on here and tell you that everyone's wrong and it's the most amazing animated movie I've ever seen, but that wouldn't be true. I would honestly say it's near the bottom when compared to all the other Pixar films.

But it's still a lot of fun. Here are the most laudable aspects, in my humble opinion:

1: The animation is the best Pixar has done to this point. It's truly beautiful! They did a tremendous job of capturing the beauty of nature, from forests to prairies, and interposing an almost cheesy-looking dinosaur in the midst of it was fantastic. Don't waste your time with a DVD on this one, splurge for the Blu-Ray.

2: The characters are heartwarming, and the plot is simple. Frances McDormand is especially wonderful as the mother of the simple farming family of apatosaurs, and the characters are driven by simple values like family and hard-work. I understand why many were frustrated with the simplicity of the plot, but do we always have to jump the shark in a movie? It's a fun and beautiful journey.

3: It's a beautiful parody of a classic western story/film. I'm a little annoyed that the previews didn't push this aspect more, because a lot of the movie-bashing is based on the fact that people didn't get the story they expected. This is not unlike classic Disney movies like "The Incredible Journey." Don't expect something modern or game-changing here. This is just a twist on a classic homecoming story.

I hope this preview helps dispel some of the hate. It's a fun movie, and worth a watch, even if it's not my favorite Pixar.

This is a very sweet, sentimental film and was very refreshing from Pixar. The latest Pixar films have been either disappointing or too focused on being great instead of fun and enjoyable. I am in the minority of people who didn't enjoy Inside Out. I didn't find it very relatable or emotional and thought the story was contrived. That's where The Good Dinosaur succeeds. It doesn't try to be relatable. It does try to be emotional, and succeeds occasionally, but for the most part, it's just a fun, lighthearted adventure film.

The Good Dinosaur doesn't try to overreach its status to be considered truly "great." It knows what it is and perfectly nails what it does best. People often hate Pixar when they make a film that is different. People hated Cars 2 because it had a story that wasn't trying to touch childhood emotions, but instead create childhood memories for the children who watch it. Brave was criticized for having a princess heroine like regular Disney animated films. People, I suspect, don't like The Good Dinosaur because it doesn't easily fit into every childhood memory or emotionally impact everyone who watches it.

My only major problems with this film is that the story isn't always engaging. It has a few plot developments or character introductions that I found unnecessary to the overall structure of the film. Aside from the story, the animation was stunning and made it easier for me to enjoy watching the film. The animation is more simple and lovable than Pixar's most recent attempt at making a "great" film, Coco. Where Coco strives for complex, layered shots and animation, The Good Dinosaur is simple, digestible, and realistic (the backgrounds) while still being ridiculous enough to appeal to young kids.

Expectations are subverted and common animation movie tropes are avoided. Even the first human child in the film is basically turned into a dog. If this could be appreciated for what it is, and not what it isn't, this could also be a considered a great film, despite its missteps.

3.5/5 stars

Although The Good Dinosaur features a simple storyline that wont blow you away, it remains endearing and heartfelt, with messages that will surely resonate with its target audience. As we follow Arlo's self discovery through grit and grind adventures with his new pal, Spot, there is a lot of excitement in every rough and tumble. There is also a great deal of laughter in each new character they cross paths with, with a trippy moment to boot ;).

This film, has as well, the most beautiful landscapes ever seen from a Pixar film, hands down. From lush forests, flowing rivers & serene sunsets, each was photorealistic and each was a visual attraction. Pixar kept its characters cartoonish however, and that contrast was a wise move which absolutely worked.

Sure, naysayers used to Pixar's imaginative storylines will have negatives to say for TGD, however, I find the family friendly plot has its charms and is well told. With likable characters (Spot, you are brilliant!) and fantastic backgrounds for an adventure-fueled film, there is definitely enough good here.

If you can make it through the tedious first third, it's not a bad little movie. The interplay between Arlo and Spot is generally enjoyable (the first really good scene is Spot trying to feed Arlo). The movie can be quite funny, somewhat thrilling, and occasionally touching.

So basically, if this was some kids cartoon from some lesser studio, this would be pretty good. For Pixar though, it's a big disappointment.

One of the film's biggest flaws is also one of its greatest strengths; the animation. On the one hand, the landscapes - forests, rivers, fields - have an amazing photo-realism that mark them as an incredible achievement in animation. But this hyper-realism makes the main dinosaur breed look terrible; they are about as realistic as the cars in Cars, and it's like someone filmed a sock puppet show in the Grand Canyon. It's the thing most reviewers seem to talk about, so it's rather amazing that Pixar didn't see the problem themselves.

It's not that the dinosaurs needed to look real, but the insistence on those giant, soulful eyes made the heads misshapen, and the colors are too clean and shiny to meld with the environments. Other breeds of dinosaurs and insects have an acceptable cartooniness, but Arlo is just annoying in design, creating a constant de-immersion signal.

The story is conventional and predictable, the emotional moments feel manipulative, but still, it's not bad as kid's cartoons go. But it sure isn't what we expect from Pixar.

The fact that this movie still holds a score of a 6.8 with hundreds of 1/10 scores shows you just how good it is. I'm not here to preach that it's an awesome movie, but give it the score it deserves. (It's not PIXAR's best, but still fits the bill of a good movie.)

Honestly the highly negative scores are just because people were not BLOWN away. A PIXAR movie sets the bar so high, so the fact that this one isn't an A+, people are bashing just to bash.

I watched this with my cousins, all at the time were under 10 ( 7 & 9 ) and nothing was too scary. Could it be over the top for 4 or 5 year old, of course, but it's not that bad. The Lion King is regarded as one of the BEST Disney films ever and there are similar scenes with death, scary bad-guys, hard times, etc.

Give it a watch.